As the woman on the radio says: “Barbados, the island that always punches above its weight.”
It’s a phrase that’s been associated with the nation for decades and been used by the good, the great and the mediocre. It’s used on the radio as a jingle, it’s been used by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and now it’s being used on ESPNCricinfo. What a trifecta.
Salt and Matthews were teammates at school, while Bethell played in the same Harrison College team as TV broadcaster Nikhil Uttamchandani, who has become a regular presenter of cricket around the world. Uttamchandani played in Bethell’s first school match and ran him out.
“Without facing a ball,” Bethell quickly adds when it is brought up.
Arguably what makes Harrison College special, though, is its reflection of Barbados as a nation as opposed to its own individual excellence.
Because despite the fact you could turn on your TV tomorrow and watch Salt and Bethell batting, as Uttamchandani commentates, Harrison is far from the most prestigious cricketing school on the island.
Cricket is still taken exceptionally seriously on the island. Yes, fewer lower-level games take place than previously, but the Barbados Cricket Association Elite Division (the highest level of the club game) is broadcast on national radio and acts as a pipeline to the national team, and more pertinently, a career.
“Kraigg Brathwaite, Jomel Warrican, Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Holder, Dwayne Smith. I could name another five or ten on this hand here. These people are millionaires, or people that have made a decent amount of money. Cricket is still the ticket. Name me one footballer from Barbados that plays in the Premier League.”
It remains a bugbear that the decline of cricket in the West Indies is spoken about so nonchalantly, when the truth is that the sport, even if slightly less popular than it was previously, still sits so far higher in the national consciousness in the Caribbean than almost anywhere else in the world. By way of example, a colleague got into a taxi in St.Lucia where the driver bemoaned the fact that Johnson Charles’ return from injury was delayed. When, exactly, was the last time you got into a taxi in the UK and the driver was in a bad mood because Will Jacks’ hamstring scans came back with a grade two, rather than grade one, tear?
“Here’s the thing,” continues Edwards, who himself briefly moved to England in the early 2000s with a view to playing county cricket. “There is no proper system in place for these youngsters – and especially youngsters that have the talent of a Jacob Bethell.
“There’s no easy way in Barbados that you could be on someone’s staff to make a living. To be producing stats day in, day out so that you could get picked for West Indies.
“So if cricket is the ticket, how do we make sure that ticket keeps ticketing?”
The talent-drain from Barbados to England is well-known: Jordan, Archer, Bethell etc. And while no ill will is harboured on the island towards those players who moved abroad, it is nevertheless still galling from an English perspective to be cheering the addition of two generational talents with one breath and then sighing at a weakened West Indies team losing 3-0 across the Test summer. Let me just take your food and then ask why you’re hungry.
What is needed are playing opportunities … and cash.
One solution could be to allow dual nationals, as Archer and Bethell were, to play in the County Championship without having to give up their eligibility for West Indies. We’ve seen that process play out in reverse already, with Ireland’s development as a Test nation built in part due to a raft of players competing in the County Championship, only for their accession to Test status to cause those players to be classified as overseas, which closed off a vital source of experience (and income).
If dual nationals were allowed to play as locals, this development pathway would remain open, the standard of county cricket would improve and so too the standard of global cricket, as any player – Bajan, Irish or otherwise – from around the world with a British passport could play domestically. All without having to convince the big boys to reach into their pockets and hand out some more cash.
“I had conversations with the West Indies six, nine months back before they arrived about what assistance we can provide,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said in July.
“The specific request that came from the West Indies was can you help us with an Under-19 tour so that we can get more of our players accessing red-ball cricket in those [English] conditions. So it’s not always about the money and there are different ways of doing it.”
This would provide red-ball cricket. And isn’t about the money.
The Caribbean still loves cricket, with Barbados remaining a nation that, as ever, punches above its weight. It is to everyone’s benefit, for any idea however big or small, to let the cricket ticket keep ticketing.
Cameron Ponsonby is a freelance cricket writer in London. @cameronponsonby
